An airdrop may be performed to deliver supplies, equipment, and/or personnel to areas that may otherwise be too difficult to reach due to distance, terrain, hostilities, climate, or other reasons. Prior to the airdrop, ground personnel at the drop zone location may take measurements, such as surface and ballistic winds, QNH (a Q code that refers to the barometric altimeter setting that will cause the altimeter to read altitude above mean sea level within a certain defined region), temperature, and desired point of impact in the drop zone. The information obtained by the ground personnel is then transmitted via radio (i.e., voice transmission) to the cargo transport aircraft, where the flight crew manually inputs the airdrop information into a computer. The computer then calculates a Computed Air Release Point (CARP).
Additionally or alternatively, the flight crew of the cargo transport aircraft may obtain airdrop data by dropping a device that transmits data back to the aircraft. Using the data from the dropped device, the computer calculates a CARP for the airdrop. The aircraft then loops back to complete the airdrop, requiring at least one more pass over the drop zone.
Unfortunately, with both of these methods for communicating airdrop data to the flight crew, the conditions may have changed after the computer calculated the CARP. As a result, the airdrop may not land in the drop zone. When airdrops do not reach the desired point of impact, disastrous results may occur. For example, humanitarian aid may not reach the people for which it was designed to help. The dropped supplies may be either lost and unused, or used by unintended parties. As another example, personnel may land in hostile areas endangering their lives. The cost of inaccurate airdrops may be immeasurable.
Thus, it would be beneficial to have a system and method for aiding airdrop computations that result in more accurate airdrops. As a result, supplies and equipment will reach the intended parties, and personnel will arrive where they are needed.